Butyric acid is touted as a miracle cure for moles. However, this fatty acid is corrosive and irritating and can harm humans and animals. Buttermilk or whey is therefore a gentle alternative to butyric acid. Learn how to use buttermilk below.
Buttermilk is one way to get a mole to move
Really drive away moles?
Even if he is frowned upon because of his digging work, whoever has a mole in the garden can count themselves lucky. Moles are great pest eaters, consuming half their body weight in insects per day. Voles and other garden pests feel threatened in its presence and therefore steer clear of gardens harboring a mole. Moles also improve soil quality by rummaging through the soil. In short: moles are beneficial and as such are protected.
Drive away moles with buttermilk
If you still want to get rid of the mole, buttermilk or whey is a good option. You use the mole's good sense of smell for your own purposes: who likes it when it stinks at home all the time? The fermentation of buttermilk produces small amounts of butyric acid, a strong-smelling, caustic acid that no one likes to have around.
Get the buttermilk going
To repel the mole with buttermilk or whey, you need to get them as close to him as possible.
- Find several molehills and carefully dig them up with a shovel.
- Soak scraps of cloth in buttermilk or whey.
- Give them to the exposed passages.
- Re-dig the passages and mark the stocked mounds.
- Repeat the process after three or four days, or simply pour some buttermilk into the prepared mounds.
How do you know if the mole is gone?
Moles dig a lot and quickly. A mole can make up to five molehills per hour. When a mole stops digging, it's probably gone. So keep a close eye on your garden and count the molehills. If these don't go away for several days, the mole has probably moved. However, to be on the safe side and to prevent the mole from coming back, you should still refresh your buttermilk rags several times.